With the election neck and neck and large numbers of people turned off by Westminster politics, what better time for a Labour leader to inspire voters with hope and vision for the future? Unfortunately I can’t see “fiscal responsibility” quite doing it. Having accepted the framework of austerity, Labour is now committed to fighting an election on terms set by the Tories. While there is much in the Labour manifesto to champion – the mansion tax proposal, raising the minimum wage, abolishing non-dom status, protection of the NHS, scrapping zero-hours contracts – in trying to marry a commitment to equality and austerity, the Labour party creates confusion about what its core election message is. Following the rebuffing of Labour leader Jim Murphy over further cuts in Scotland, I suspect the happiest person with Labour’s manifesto will be Nicola Sturgeon.

You have to hand it to the Tories when it comes to sheer front. David Cameron’s promise that he will deliver the “good life” to “hard-working” Britons is Orwellian in light of the misery he has caused to the most vulnerable in our society. Their manifesto reasserts a commitment to the wealthiest, albeit dressed up with one very large bribe (inheritance tax). For all the talk about helping people get on the housing ladder, extending right to buy will make the housing shortage worse, confining more families to the further misery on council waiting lists and the private rented sector. Compelling councils to sell their most valuable council homes when vacant is the effective social cleansing of the poor from richer areas.

I’ve read more than my fair share of political party manifestos through the years and some, like the 1945 Labour offering, have been brilliant. Others like Margaret Thatcher’s 1983 manifesto that called for a more American approach to government and society were utter tosh.

It is therefore no surprise to me that Cameron’s Conservative manifesto is risible. Cameron talked a lot about recovery but it seems that his party’s policies are more about keeping the 1% happy with their “I’m all right, Jack” inheritance tax cut. In some bizarre stretch of the imagination the Tory manifesto also tries to rebrand the Conservatives as the political party for working people. And yet it is bereft of answers for millions of working families who because of austerity have struggled to make ends meet on flat wages or zero-hours contracts. The Tories’ perpetual answer to making society work better for everyone is to fill their manifesto with tax cuts and stand committed to our nuclear arsenal.

Labour’s manifesto has a different feel to it. It wasn’t poetic but it did have many practical ideas to make Britain work for everyone – not just the 1%. I am pleased that Ed Miliband is putting some real teeth behind his pledge to protect the NHS by being committed to hiring 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs. And unlike Cameron he has said how he would pay for it – with a mansion tax on homes worth more than £2m.

The Labour manifesto has some valid and real answers to both our economy and society. It sets out a path to build a sustainable business environment while preserving and enhancing the social safety network. Labour is offering pragmatic hope rather than pie-in-the-sky political spin that some other parties promote.

The promise of remedies for an ailing NHS has been rolled out this week by the different parties. We know what’s in the manifestos but it was what was missing that jumped out at me. Who is going to own up and do something about the massive debts that hospital trusts are struggling with as a consequence of private funding initiatives that built about 100 shiny new hospitals? No one has talked about that.

Both Labour and the Conservatives pledge to extend GP opening times but don’t say how they would do this. Where are all these new GPs going to come from? It takes up to 10 years to train a GP from medical school.

Moving care into the community is a nice idea but there are still plenty of conditions that need hospitals. And if it is more about the community, why are walk-in centres being closed down?

The extra £8bn that has been floated as the sum needed and then promised by the Conservatives – where will it go? Please not on more non-clinical managers. And not more re-organisations. How about talking to those who actually do the job – the GPs, the A&E doctors and nurses – to see where the problems lie.

I didn’t see much within the manifestos that might inspire me to stay working for the NHS in the long term. I just can’t see myself physically being able to do it even though I would like to. It’s too hard and I’m exhausted. As are so many of my colleagues.

What is extraordinary is how similar they are. I was by the sea when I was reading them and the seagulls were making an awful racket. It brought to mind the scene in Finding Nemo when the seagulls go “mine, mine, mine” and it was similar reading the manifestos. Everyone is trying to gain territory.

Right to buy is not a terrible thing; failure to replace social housing is. Those two things should not be muddied. We have an enlarged population and it’s going to get bigger faster so we need more housing. Selling existing housing is a good way of doing it, as long as we replace one with two.

On inheritance tax everyone has missed a massive issue. I am unmarried and if my partner died I would have to pay inheritance tax in order to keep living in our home. This is the case for many women. A high proportion of children are born to parents who are unmarried and women statistically outlive men, but we are not facing up to the fact that they will be made homeless. With the Conservative proposal to raise the threshold to £1m, in 30 years’ time women of my generation will be very grateful. It does not raise enough money for all the terrible damage and heartache that it causes.

I’m a landlord and small business owner and reading the Labour manifesto I slightly felt like I wasn’t trusted. I was also struck by how busy they will be and how much money they will spend if they get in. There are a lot of things they want to legislate on and if they are a minority government, none of it is going to happen.